The issue of the propriety ofany two human beings touchingone another runs the gamut ofthe human condition; fromliberal to conservative, manto woman, western toeastern. It has become aparticular lightning rodin sports because at timesit pits the perception of theofficials’ impartiality against the notionthat sport is a social endeavor, wherehuman beings express themselves,sometimes by quasi-intimate contact.Nonetheless, the refereeing authoritieswill tell you that the best policy is toavoid touching players, coaches andeach other as much as possible.
Oh, there are some exceptionsand some issues of common sense,but many officiating leaders feel thatdrawing the line at zero is the best wayto avert two issues. One is with officialswho don’t see potential problemsthat could result. The other is withcoaches, players, fans and media whoare either paranoid enough or jadedenough to believe anything more thana handshake is proof of collusion.
“Because officials are undera microscope from the time theystep onto the court until the finalbuzzer, it is best if they refrain fromtouching fellow officials, players,coaches and those working aroundthe game due to the sensitivity manyhave toward touching,” says DebbieWilliamson, NCAA women’s basketballconsultant as national coordinatorand secretary-rules editor. “Officialshave numerous ways to communicateduring the course of a game and whenwe can avoid touching others, it is bestto do so.”
Times Have Changed
Randy Krejci is commissioner of theMississippi Valley Conference, anenclave of 14 major high schools ineastern Iowa. He’s a recently retiredmiddle school principal but also aveteran of numerous state finals asan official in football, basketball andvolleyball. He’s been on both sides ofthe mirror.
“In Iowa, some officials havegotten in trouble for even inadvertentlytouching someone of the opposite sex,”says Krejci. “In the school setting, youhave to be very careful that any kindof touching isn’t misconstrued.” Hebelieves that most instances arise fromperfectly innocuous events, but sinceofficials are held to a higher standard,they receive less forgiveness.
“It can certainly ruin someone’scareer if it gets embellished in themedia,” he explains. Whether an officialis exonerated or not, the mere publicitycan be detrimental. Early in his career,Krejci says, he thought nothing ofhelping players up off the floor or, as aneducator, driving a student home if heor she had missed the late bus. Thosedays are gone and his school district,as an example of most, has very clearpolicy on when, how and with whompresent, to interact with students inany situation. In his own case, as withmany of us, it’s led him down the roadof having to modify little behaviors thathad been natural to him.
“If you’re doing things thesame way as you did five yearsago,” says Dave Libbey, “you’re notkeeping up with the times.” Libbeyis an eight-time veteran of the men’sbasketball Final Four and now theofficiating coordinator for the Big WestConference.
It’s his perception that the attitudetoward personal contact betweenofficials and participants has changedthat quickly. It has reached the pointthat his instructions to his staff aresimple: If there’s no managementpurpose to touching a player or coach,don’t.
Avoid Buddy Perception
That plows a lot of acreage. Does itmean that from the time the crew walksout on the floor until it zips closedits overnight bags, it should avoid allphysical contact with any and all lifeforms?
No, from his point of view, it meansthat his crews should do whateveris necessary to avoid any situationputting their impartiality or liability atrisk.
Actually, that allows some leeway.If one of his officials is at Gonzaga andCoach Mark Few thrusts out his hand,is he supposed to spin move awayfrom him? No, says Libbey, becausethat looks just as suspicious as whathe witnesses more often, which isschmoozing ad nauseum. Is the touchingthat happens normal for the situation?
“It doesn’t look good when you’reout there being buddy-buddy (with acoach),” explains Libbey. Coaches atthe college level are paranoid of theforces — imagined and real — workingagainst them, he says; seeing the othercoach apparently planning his nexthunting trip with the zebras gets themgoing. Libbey even knows of someteams who have their ever-chartingassistants keep track of the amount offace time the other coach spends witheach official. What Libbey wants is asimple greeting and handshake with acoach and then to get across the floor tomake some space.
Once there, the next inevitablechallenge is the assistant coach whowants to sidle up while the officialsare observing the warmup. A friendlyhandshake is OK there, too, but that’swhen Libbey wants his people breakingit off if any attempt is made to startchatting them up.
“I just tell them to say, ‘Look, it’sgood to see you, but I’ve got to go overhere and watch this,’” he explains. Thatway, onlookers witness that the refereeisn’t totally antisocial but is also presentto do a job, which doesn’t includeexchanging baby pictures.
More and more, players on someteams, during introductions, willshake hands with their opponent,the opponent’s coach and then worktheir way to the nearby officials. Thetraditionalists will see that as a simpleact of sportsmanship. Others maysee it as an early indication of oneupsmanship.Officials are again in abind, because they can more easily looksilly rebuffing the overture than theycan look suspicious by accepting it.
Hands-Off is Best
Some of his officials, Libbey says, arestill “old school” and used to a morefamilial approach, including man hugsand friendly pats. Taking the handsoffapproach is one of the things bothhe and John Adams, former NCAA men’sbasketball national coordinator, look forin sizing up officials. As far as touchingplayers, Libbey says he can see thepoint of prudently getting betweentwo players if it helps avert a fightbut, other than that, you should nevertouch them. Laying hands on playerswho have hit the floor, for example, isdefinitely out because it might makean injury worse. That’s a good thing tothink about the next time you want tohelp untangle a pile of football players,too. Libbey also reminds us that playersand coaches have varying responsesto any kind of physical contact whenunder duress; why risk a short lefthook?
OK, basketball’s a sport in whichthe opportunity for physical interactionbetween officials and participantsisn’t great when the clock’s running.There are other sports, like baseballor softball, in which the proximity ofthe umpire to the catcher, for example,can invite contact, but is that a goodthing? Gene McArtor doesn’t think soand, in his role as national coordinatorof NCAA baseball umpires, he carriessome weight. He agrees with Libbeythat there are few good reasons to betouching players or coaches.
Baseball, in one respect, isdifferent from other sports becauseit traditionally tolerates heatedconfrontations between umpire andcontestant. As a Band-Aid, it alsopromises that touching an umpire willearn a quick thumb and the promise offurther penalties. For McArtor, it’s fair,then, that the umpires shouldn’t touchplayers or coaches, either.
Often, though, we’ll see the plateumpire gently lay a hand on the backof the catcher to line up his strike zone,for example. McArtor understands thatmechanic but doesn’t want the umpireto maintain that contact. In his view,it would be better if it didn’t happenat all, but he definitely doesn’t want itto persist once the pitcher begins hisdelivery. It’s an invitation for coaches toclaim it distracts their player.
“My policy is not 100 percentagreed with by everyone,” McArtoradmits, “because it differs from howsome of them learned the job.
“In my view, though, that’s not theway the game is anymore.”
There was a time in soccer whenofficials in some parts of the worldwould give players a little shove to gettheir attention. Italy comes to mind,where some of the greats like PierluigiCollina could do that and keep theirjobs. It seems like wearing water skisto detect land mines in today’s world,but the prevailing powers accepted thatthe passion on a soccer field sometimesrequired a more personal touch.
Today, players have to settle fora shaved head and menacing lookfrom the likes of England’s HowardWebb, and certainly the USSF frownson touching, like everyone else. TonyCrush is a national level official withMLS experience and is responsible forreferee instruction in Kentucky.
“It’s been U.S. Soccer’s positionfrom a liability and game managementperspective that we shouldn’t betouching players,” Crush explains. “Itcan be misconstrued.
“Our society asks us to be on thefield what we would be in our normallives. That’s what humanizes us andthe players appreciate it.”
We also should consider whethertouching a crewmate is out of bounds.Certainly, putting an arm around anofficial of the opposite sex isn’t likelyto look much better than attemptingthe maneuver with a coach. He orshe is simply a co-worker, not likelyto be your spouse and not likely toappreciate the attention. When it comesto officials of the same gender, the bestpolicy is to handle them no differentlythan the contestants.
Obviously, a handshake or a fistbump, appropriately rendered beforeor after the contest, is sensible, butremember that fellow officials areunder stress, too. If an arm around theshoulder, for example, is calculatedto “relieve tension,” it might backfireif your confrere feels patronized,demeaned, cornered or worse. It alsodoesn’t portray any confidence inyour fellow official to the players andcoaches if you do that while huddlingto discuss a play. It gives the impressionthat the official is weak and needs ahelping hand. A good policy is to treatyour relationship with your partners nodifferently than anyone else.
Another Rule to Enforce
Sport, all the way down to LittleLeague and Pop Warner, has becomebig business; an eating machineconsuming the passions of all involved,including officials. In anything otherthan professional wrestling, the arbitersplay a big part — and more frequentlythe decisive part — in maintaining ameasure of sanity when the ball’s inplay. They help protect the legitimacythat doping, huge salaries andoverstated egos have been eroding.Officials are on a big stage with bigpeople and maybe it isn’t asking toomuch for them to accomplish more byactually doing less when it comes tofraternizing with the participants.
Fans are more willing to cast ajaundiced eye on what takes place onthe court or field. Psychologists can tella lot about people by handing thema picture and asking them to makeup a story about it. Then they’ll handthe subject a blank card and still hearmoving commentaries, but from amuch smaller group. More often, theblank card gets no reaction becausethere’s no stimulus to the imagination.Officials must be that blank card today.
Whenever they’re in public theymust portray impartiality. Supervisorsare telling us that touching a person anydifferently on the field than you wouldin the office or gym or church can bringthat impartiality into question. LikeKrejci says, that question of proprietydoesn’t have to have an answer. LikeCrush says, people want to see us fit thebill, so back-patting, group hugging oran arm around the waist doesn’t cut itanymore.
Many of the referees who wouldpush back on a hands-off policy wouldargue, “I gotta be me.” Asking themto keep their hands in their pocketswould be like asking them to work thegame on crutches, as the rationale goes.Crush, for one, disagrees. He sees allsorts of Type A personalities walk in offthe street and manage to comply withfederation policy. It’s just another rule toenforce, albeit a personal one.
The reality is that 50 peoplecould have been interviewed forthis story with the likelihood of few,if any, disagreeing that an absoluteno-touching policy is best. Most peopleat a game have no idea what officialsare thinking, and few can hear whatthey say, but they can see what theydo and what they look like. Body typeis equated with fitness. Sculpting ofsignals is a measure of commitment.Mannerisms are a predictor of emotion.Invading someone’s personal spacewith a pat or a full-length hug is anindication of what?
Those other things tie to whatpeople expect an official to do, whiletouching a person goes outside thelines. It’s more likely to be considereda sign of personal interest: That’s notthe image assigners want, nor is itwhat most officials want. Not touchingsomeone, other than when it’s the politething to do, is the order of the day.
Remember this: What wouldsomeone you care about think if theywere told where you had your handson another person, without tellingthem you were working a gamewhen you did it? If you would havesome explaining to do, you probablyshouldn’t have been doing it.Use your head, not your hands.
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